The Pete Hines interview on VG247 is now online, offering their chat with the vice president of public relations and marketing at Bethesda Softworks about the many irons in the fire in the Zenimax family. In addition to thepreviousnewsbitsfrom this conversation, topics include what a big year this will be for them, Kinect and 3DS plans, crossmedia strategies, RAGE, when to expect a DOOM 4 unveiling, Fallout: New Vegas bugs, and more.

Jerykk wrote on Jan 27, 2011, 01:24:The problem with fast travel is that it completely undermines the sense of being on a journey. Imagine if you went on a trip across the world, but at any point you could teleport to your house, hang out, then teleport back. The whole sense of adventure would be ruined. Oblivion had houses you could buy in each town and hotels where you could sleep but fast travel rendered them all useless. Fast travel also makes it considerably easier to horde and sell loot. Just enter a dungeon, grab everything you can hold, teleport to the nearest merchant, sell everything, teleport back to the dungeon, rinse and repeat.

I appreciate the convenience that fast travel provides but I think the downsides outweigh it.

If you think about it though it's pretty much exactly the same system as the original Fallout used, only without random encounters. If they put random encounters in there it would be the same thing. I'm not saying that makes it perfect, but it's not a new thing for the Xbox and games can be quite good despite it.

I do agree it was too easy in Oblivion though. A lack of any encounters or penalty did make it too casual maybe. You can kind of regulate it yourself though, for instance when I played Oblivion I only fast-traveled to towns. I didn't fast travel to random locations in the woods. Same thing with Fallout 3 and New Vegas. In my head I pretended there were caravans or carriages with travel options between cities, which makes sense really.

That's my biggest problem with Oblivion on the travel front, there is no transit system in the game. Some character travel from town to town and they literally just walk... fucking stupid.

Actually I don't mind fast travel much... Daggerfall had fast travel, Fallout and Baldur's Gate had fast travel in their way. I liked how Morrowind explained in-game travel with the silt striders and spells, but I would rather see that in addition to fast travel rather than instead of it. I mean, it's kind of stupid that Cyrodiil has no transit system what-so-ever.

The problem with fast travel is that it completely undermines the sense of being on a journey. Imagine if you went on a trip across the world, but at any point you could teleport to your house, hang out, then teleport back. The whole sense of adventure would be ruined. Oblivion had houses you could buy in each town and hotels where you could sleep but fast travel rendered them all useless. Fast travel also makes it considerably easier to horde and sell loot. Just enter a dungeon, grab everything you can hold, teleport to the nearest merchant, sell everything, teleport back to the dungeon, rinse and repeat.

I appreciate the convenience that fast travel provides but I think the downsides outweigh it.

swaaye wrote on Jan 26, 2011, 18:16:But this is really par for the course at Bethesda. I've never played a game from them that hasn't been riddled with quirks, regardless of how high of a rosy pedestal you want to put TES 2 and 3 on.

Oh don't get me wrong, both of them are very quirky and have several flaws, I am just saying they were actual RPGs and much deeper experiences.

StingingVelvet wrote on Jan 26, 2011, 16:12:The reason Oblivion is simpleton shit is mostly the writing, quest design and lack of any choice and consequence what-so-ever. It's made to accommodate people who just want to run around whacking stuff and not think about anything, who... gasp... are simpletons (at least when it comes to playing games). I didn't call you a simpleton, I just said you enjoyed Oblivion which is made for simpletons, i.e. simpleton shit.

Well I'm sure somebody would like to argue with you on that, but I won't. Oblivion is a disturbingly normalized experience, designed for ease and the ability to see everything in a single play through. And a lot of it is curiously designed, if not broken.

I'm not much of a fantasy buff so I don't pay much attention to the stories of fantasy games. I am mostly interested in the sandbox, open world gameplay and interaction with the world. So I won't comment on the value of the storyline or the lore.

But this is really par for the course at Bethesda. I've never played a game from them that hasn't been riddled with quirks, regardless of how high of a rosy pedestal you want to put TES 2 and 3 on.

I wouldn't recommend holding your breath on Skyrim. I definitely would avoid all previews because those guys spew more bullshit than just about any other game company. I really just hope they try to refine and not reinvent because that would probably turn out best...

I probably already answered this in my other reply but the point is while I can enjoy dumb whacky whacky games (or shooty shooty games) I much prefer stuff with more depth. Since we have a fuckton of the former and little of the latter it sucks when another RPG series goes toward being an action game.

Beamer wrote on Jan 26, 2011, 16:00:So do you define fast travel as "simpleton shit," too?

Actually I don't mind fast travel much... Daggerfall had fast travel, Fallout and Baldur's Gate had fast travel in their way. I liked how Morrowind explained in-game travel with the silt striders and spells, but I would rather see that in addition to fast travel rather than instead of it. I mean, it's kind of stupid that Cyrodiil has no transit system what-so-ever.

I'm all for high standards, but right now you're essentially whining (yes, if you're going to throw "simpleton shit" around I'm calling you a whiner) that Eastern Promises is simpleton shit for not having enough fight scenes. It wasn't an action movie, but it had action elements. Didn't stop it from being an excellent movie. Oblivion isn't an RPG but it has RPG elements. That doesn't make it "simpleton shit."

Considering it's one of the more agreed upon games on this board, way to call everyone here Transformers fans.

The reason Oblivion is simpleton shit is mostly the writing, quest design and lack of any choice and consequence what-so-ever. It's made to accommodate people who just want to run around whacking stuff and not think about anything, who... gasp... are simpletons (at least when it comes to playing games). I didn't call you a simpleton, I just said you enjoyed Oblivion which is made for simpletons, i.e. simpleton shit.

The reason I find it annoying is because Oblivion, and Skyrim by extension, could have appealed to those people AND RPG fans by making subtle changes. Hiring people who know how to write for instance... making some areas of the map dangerous no matter your level, and making guild and main quests get progressively harder... not allowing you to join every guild would be another.

If you want an example look at Fallout: New Vegas. It was close enough to Fallout 3 to please the vast majority of fans of that game, but it also added many RPG elements, some optional some not, which made it appeal more to me and other more hardcore RPG fans. I was hoping Bethesda would pick up on this and make Skyrim more of an RPG like New Vegas, but the early reports don't sound good... everything sounds scaled to match your level and I haven't heard of them hiring new writers.

We shall see though, I'm not writing it off yet. More importantly if it ends up another dumb hack n' slash game I will still enjoy it, as I enjoyed Oblivion... I just will wish it was an RPG.

swaaye wrote on Jan 26, 2011, 15:37:Like Daggerfall and Morrowing weren't both horribly flawed. Give me a break. Hell, Daggerfall is a disaster zone in tons of ways.

Do you really consider more hands on realtime combat as "simpleton shit"? You'd rather have the ultra fakey Morrowind style stuff? I hope Skyrim takes what Oblivion did to a new level of refinement. Give me more Dark Messiah-style combat and less dice roll stuff any day.

But since Skyrim is supposed to be an "RPG", I'm sure I'll be pumping 80 arrows into some guy's head yet again.

Hey guess what, some people's tastes in games are different from yours. Some people like stats and the character being more important than player skill. Some people don't want every game to be an action game.

It's okay that you and I are different. Besides, combat was fun in Oblivion, I'm not knocking it, I am just saying I would rather have a deeper RPG system.

I'm all for high standards, but right now you're essentially whining (yes, if you're going to throw "simpleton shit" around I'm calling you a whiner) that Eastern Promises is simpleton shit for not having enough fight scenes. It wasn't an action movie, but it had action elements. Didn't stop it from being an excellent movie. Oblivion isn't an RPG but it has RPG elements. That doesn't make it "simpleton shit."

Considering it's one of the more agreed upon games on this board, way to call everyone here Transformers fans.

StingingVelvet wrote on Jan 26, 2011, 14:00:I know Oblivion wasn't an RPG, but Daggerfall and Morrowind were. I would like them to return to that, rather than make Oblivion another hack n' slash game with dialogue written by a 4th grader.

If you like that simpleton shit though then have at it, I don't see what is "stupid" about that. Everyone likes different stuff, some people even like the new Transformers movies, one assumes.

Like Daggerfall and Morrowing weren't both horribly flawed. Give me a break. Hell, Daggerfall is a disaster zone in tons of ways.

Do you really consider more hands on realtime combat as "simpleton shit"? You'd rather have the ultra fakey Morrowind style stuff? I hope Skyrim takes what Oblivion did to a new level of refinement. Give me more Dark Messiah-style combat and less dice roll stuff any day.

But since Skyrim is supposed to be an "RPG", I'm sure I'll be pumping 80 arrows into some guy's head yet again.

Fallout 3 is the closest Bethsoft has come to making a great RPG. Everything else have been sandbox dungeon crawls with RPG elements. Look at the old SSI games, look at Bioware and Black Isles old games, now those are CRPGS. A good RPG is much more focused.

"There are two kinds of people in this world; people who love delis, and people you shouldn’t associate with.” - Damon Runyan

Fallout 3 had more RPG elements. You actually made some decisions that mattered. I think I got mocked here once for discussing Megaton, but you actually had a decision to make there. Throughout the game what you chose to say would impact you to some degree, and how you chose to solve a quest would change what you got as a reward.

Oblivion has none of that. If you're keeping it that way then yes, you should disregard the useless vestigial skills. "Correcting" it makes the game more of an RPG. I'm fine with it remaining more of an action/adventure game. I consider Oblivion one of the best games of the last few years. I'd be fine with them merely fixing its flaws rather than adding more depth.

I was more taking the perspective that Bethesda started with RPGs and is supposed to be making RPGs and that Oblivion was a failure in that regard, which should be reversed.

I you like dumbed down stuff that is your business, but I would rather see Skyrim return more to Daggerfall or Morrowind's standards.

I'd sure like an explanation, someday, of why they ALWAYS refuse to do simple things for PC like reduce the font and the map. Someone always comes out with a mod to do that within days of the game's release. I always guess it's because of some backroom deal with Microsoft that the two versions be identical. Crazy, but what other explanation could there be?

I'm not sure what to think of Rage. I'll definitely be checking out reviews and comments here before I buy. From what I've seen it looks very much like Borderlands but with cars - not something I'm inclined to play.

Fallout 3 had more RPG elements. You actually made some decisions that mattered. I think I got mocked here once for discussing Megaton, but you actually had a decision to make there. Throughout the game what you chose to say would impact you to some degree, and how you chose to solve a quest would change what you got as a reward.

Oblivion has none of that. If you're keeping it that way then yes, you should disregard the useless vestigial skills. "Correcting" it makes the game more of an RPG. I'm fine with it remaining more of an action/adventure game. I consider Oblivion one of the best games of the last few years. I'd be fine with them merely fixing its flaws rather than adding more depth.

Does anyone know what they are? Playing through Oblivion again right now, I can think of some useless ones:1) Speechcraft. I just don't see a way that this really changes the game. All it really alters is how many times you need to use that stupid minigame. It has no impact that I've found other than that. And it's a pain in the ass to train due to training simply being that stupid minigame. 2) Mercantile. Yeah, this has much more of an impact, considerably as your levels get higher, but it becomes a hassle. There's simply not enough to sell to get it up organically, and after a while you have so much money that crating stuff around to sell gets tedious. While being able to sell for more money, either due to higher skill or investing, has some tangible difference it ends up meaningless. By the time you've got that kind of cash money is no object. Hell, you can find and make better stuff than you can buy, so buying really is only for homes and such. I doubt anyone truly becomes master of this, best case scenario you enchant some objects to wear when you sell but that's annoying to carry, annoying to change in and out of, and still kind of useless as by that point you're probably rolling in cash.3) Blunt. Is this really so different from Blade that it needs to be separate? My first playthrough I began by concentrating on Blunt but quickly realized that there are significantly more and better weapon options under Blade.

Some I don't use, such as hand-to-hand and block, but they make more sense. I don't know if anyone really creates hand-to-hand fighter, you lose too many perks from enchanted blades and shields (also why I don't use two handed weapons), but it makes sense. I also don't think I've ever used alchemy but that makes sense, too.

Other than that, though? Getting rid of my numbers 1 and 2 would improve the game somewhat, in my opinion, despite "dumbing it down," and combining either blade and blunt or possibly acrobatics and athletics would all make sense.